[Asterisk-Dev] signal gateway access

[Mike M]

Hello all,

I've been noodling the SS7/Asterisk possibilities and
was wondering if I could run some ideas past the list to 
see how well they stand up to scrutiny.

What do you think about an external signal gateway
that delivers signal packets to Asterisk over IP?

UDP would work on a back-to-back connection.  TCP/TALI
might work but it's esoteric.  SCTP/M3UA would be 
a good general solution.  I've been following the LKSCTP 
project for a while now and sense that it might be ready to use.

What do you think about the signal gateway converting between ISUP
and Q.SIG/Q.931?  The idea comes from knowing that Asterisk
has a PRI interface that could become the base for an IMT
control interface.  With conversion, the Asterisk changes
would be minimized.  

For other applications (LIDB, CNAM, LNP, etc.) new interfaces
would need to be written but the same IP based signaling 
transport would be available.

Separating the SS7 functions from the Asterisk platform offers
some advantages.  SS7 network providers are intolerant of links
going in and out of service so having a dedicated and redundant
platforms ensures stable operation of SS7 links.  An external 
signal gateway is also capable of serving several (maybe even 
many) Asterisk boxes.

That's it in a nutshell.  Thank you for any comments and advice.
-- 
Michael Mueller